Sounding Board
by legaldramafan
Summary: Morgan calls Emily to use her as his sounding board and voice his concerns for Reid. Spoilers for Season 8, including most recent episodes. References to Season 2. Hints of one-sided Morgan/Reid and Emily/Hotch. Rated M for language and discussions of unsubs.


**Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc., are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.**

"Emily Prentiss," the brunette stated with authority as she answered her international cell phone without checking the i.d.

"Hey Emily, it's Morgan."

"Well hello, stranger! What can I do for you?"

"I was just wondering if you have a free minute, to talk maybe."

She could sense the distress through the phone. "For you, I'll free up a few minutes."

Morgan smiled. "It's about Reid."

Emily sighed as she settled onto her couch with a steaming cup of tea. "When is it not?"

"You're not helping."

"You know I have a pathological need to state the obvious. But that's neither here nor there; please continue."

"He's not well. He's not dealing with her death."

From various updates from her old co-workers, she knew that the "her" in question was Maeve. "Reid's strong, he'll pull through."

"Even strong things break eventually. What if he can't come back from this?"

"Give him time."

"I've been giving him time! You should have seen him this last case! He completely broke protocol while supposedly trying to talk down an unsub. When Hotch confronted him about it after the fact he walked away from him giving him _that_ attitude."

Emily knew to which attitude Morgan was referring; it was a defiant, somewhat snarky, make-you-want-to-shake-him attitude that seldom reared its ugly head. _"In the months that you've known me, you've never seen me act this way? Hey, no offense, Emily, but you don't really know what you're talking about, do ya?"*_ She closed her eyes at the thought and inhaled deeply before asking, "do you think that he's using?"

Morgan sighed. "No, but Christ, how long was it until we figured it out the last time."

"Well we knew something was wrong, we just didn't realize what we were looking at exactly, this time you know what the signs are, and what they mean."

Running his hand over the back of his head Morgan replied, "I just don't understand how sometimes he can be such a horrible liar and sometimes he's the sneakiest son-of-a-bitch I know."

"He's from Vegas, Morgan. He could have been a card shark or a pool hustler. Those times when he's being a quote 'horrible liar' are merely the times when he _wants _you to know that he's lying. He's not that innocent kid you met when Gideon first brought him to the BAU; on some levels, I don't know that he ever was. He'd dealt with a lot more shit on a whole different scale by the time he turned eighteen, more than anyone else on that team except for maybe you, and we all had our baggage. Hell, we could have used a second jet for all our baggage."

"Well he doesn't look like a walking skeleton . . . yet. That's the most objective measure I have. Although if he did lose weight he would just say that he wasn't eating because of the grief, not because he was too high to be hungry."

"He hasn't completely shut himself off, right? You and JJ and Garcia went over to his place to help clean it up, didn't you?"

"Yeah."

"Well I don't think he would have had you all over if there was a chance of someone finding his stash."

"That's probably true."

"Was there anything about this unsub that could have set him off?"

"Yeah. He was a guy with violent ideations who stalked women and wrote out his fantasies as a part of a group therapy. The leader of the group then stole the ideas from his stories and acted them out. When the guy figured it out, he killed the leader and then kidnapped one of the women he'd been stalking and was in the midst of acting out the fantasy by drowning her when we found him."

"Well I don't think anyone should have been surprised that a stalker killing his prey set him off. The only part that's surprising is where you all were surprised that he broke protocol. What the hell was he doing in the field on that anyhow?"

"I guess Hotch thought he could handle it."

"Then he's losing his touch. That should have been a big, blaring 'HELL NO'."

"Well he's been a little distracted and I don't think anyone else considered it either."

"Still dealing with that copycat business?"

"Yeah, he's gone dormant."

"And he's been heavily focused on Reid too, hasn't he? I know he's stalking the whole team, but from what I know it seems that he's focused in a bit more on Reid than anyone else."

"That's probably an accurate assessment."

"Have you suggested he move in with you for the time being?"

"Really Emily?"

"Not for his sake, I know that would insult him, but for yours."

"I think my minutes are up."

"Morgan, don't run away from this. You have to stop running eventually."

"I've been running for years and it's worked just fine."

"Except that you're alone."

"Well if that's not the pot calling the kettle black," he spat.

"He's with Beth and I'm in England."

"Would you have gone to England if he weren't."

"Yes. Maybe. Probably. It was never gonna happen."

"Neither is this. I know you get off on some me and Reid gay together fantasy but it's never happening. He's straight."

"That's not what Blake told you. I thought she said Reid is all about the person on the inside not the package on the outside."

"I've never seen him go for a guy."

"What about that Ethan character? The piano player in New Orleans?"

"What about him?"

"He and Reid lived together. That could have been a thing."

"Or they were roommates."

"You don't know, Negative Ned."

Morgan smiled for a moment and then tears filled his eyes. "I miss you," he stated in a small voice.

Emily formed a sad smile of her own as she heard Morgan sniffle. "I miss you too Derek."

"Thanks for listening."

She shook her head, but decided not to point out that he was still running. "Anytime, you know that."

Morgan nodded. "I'll talk to you again soon. Be safe."

"You too."

And then the line went dead.

*Quote from Season 2, Episode 17, _Distress_


End file.
